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'House of Horrors' keeps hanging on Spooky Old Town building has withstood years of speculation on its final demiseSimon Whitehouse Northern News Services Published Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012
"It is similar to the original Stanton Hospital that when the city tried to do something with it, it collapsed," he said. "It is probably not dissimilar from the Vaydik House which is on the New Town walking tour. If you tried to do anything with it, it would probably collapse because it is probably full of mold." The House of Horrors, which is boarded up, appears to have recently had its front door knocked down and garbage is strewn about everywhere inside. The historical building, built in 1938 as a rooming house, is one of a number of dwindling historical buildings of a bygone era in this city's history which have been maintained by private owners. Eying an increasing number of transient people coming into what was then the center of town during the 1930s and '40s, a prospector named Alphonse "Frenchy" Cyres built the house to rent out rooms to incoming residents. The structure, long known as Cyres' Bunkhouse or Cyres' Rooming House, was later labelled the House of Horrors due to its spooky appearance. Its creepy reputation only grew with the death of a former bushman and prospector named Ben Melanson, who drowned in a basement water barrel in 1957, according to historian Ryan Silke. When the building was abandoned and boarded up by the eighties, the property was affixed with a plaque by the Daughters of the Midnight Sun reading "The House of Horrors" after the building became derelict and was boarded up. It was never formally designated by the city as a heritage site. According to land title documents obtained by Yellowknifer, the current owner of the lot is 5743 NWT Limited, whose main director is Mark Avery. The Redcliffe Developments owner said he bought the 11,000-square-foot property from Bond Street Properties a few years ago, but couldn't name the exact year. "We are not doing anything with it right now, so there are no plans for it," he said, adding area neighbours have indicated to him they would like to see a future park in the area. Bond Street Properties is the same company that was attempting to develop Bayview Estates in the Niven Lake subdivision before going belly up and abandoning the project in 2007. Redcliffe Developments has since acquired that Niven parcel and is currently building townhomes there. Van Tighem said the city has had little interest in the building, in part because it is privately owned, but also because there is little historical significance to it. A lot of work would have to be done if there was any interest in saving it as well, said Van Tighem. "It is not anything that has captured the interest of the heritage committee so it is something that was never really felt to have significance," said Van Tighem. "Something probably more important that disappeared a few years ago was the Hudson's Bay warehouse. And it was still in use." Speculation as to when the house will finally collapse has been going on for years. In 2003, Yellowknifer reported that the landmark was "on its last legs and may not survive another winter." The house was owned by Reg LaFleur at the time, and was seen by the city heritage committee as being in a state of disrepair. Silke said he was one of the few people who had gone through the building to analyze its condition, and said it is now well beyond saving. "It is too bad, it is falling down," says Silke. "I had been there about 10 years ago because I had done a brief report on it for the city's heritage committee just to update them on the structural condition and some of the heritage value. I had walked through the building and walked downstairs at that point and it was in bad shape. I poke my head in now and the door is wide open and there isn't even a floor left."
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